STOCKPORT METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL Employment Land Review January 2015 | STOCKPORT METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL CONTENTS 1.0 Executive Summary ................................................................... 4 2.0 Introduction ............................................................................ 12 3.0 Study Area Context ................................................................. 16 4.0 The Planning Policy Context .................................................... 26 5.0 Consultation ........................................................................... 39 6.0 Stockport Commercial Land and Property Market.................... 42 7.0 Employment Sites ................................................................... 48 8.0 Future Requirements ............................................................... 89 9.0 Conclusions .......................................................................... 107 10.0 Recommendations and Next Steps ........................................ 113 1 Page Appendices: Appendix I: Survey Questionnaires…………………………………….122 EXECUTIVESUMMARY Appendix II: Qualitative Site Assessment Plan………………………..127 Appendix III: Qualitative Site Assessments…………………………….129 Appendix IV: Qualitative Site Scores…………………………………….335 Appendix V: Forecast Calculations………………………………………337 | STOCKPORT METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL List of Tables and Figures Tables Title Page 6.1 Prime and Secondary Rents in Surrounding Local Markets 44 6.2 Industrial Rents in Surrounding Local Markets 46 7.1 ONS/Planning Use Classification 52 7.2 UDP Review (2006) Employment Land Allocations 53 7.3 Sites/Premises with Planning Permission and with Lapsed Planning Permission for 54 Employment Uses 7.4 Sites / Premises with Planning Permission for Employment Purposes (Under 56 Construction) 7.5 Completions Since 2004 58 7.6 2013-14 Completions by Committee Area 58 7.7 Distribution of Development Resulting in the Loss of Employment Floorspace 59 During 2013-14 8.1 GMFM Projected Employment Floorspace Requirements for SMBC up to 2031 90 8.2 GMFM Projected Jobs by Sector for SMBC up to 2031 94 8.3 Employment Densities by Employment Sector 95 8.4 SMBC Bespoke Employment Densities 96 8.5 Projected Floorspace by Sector for SMBC up to 2031. 96 8.6 Projected Employment Land by Sector for SMBC up to 2031 98 8.7 Total Amount of Industrial/Commercial Floorspace Lost to Other Uses for SMBC 99 2 Between 2006 and 2013 Page 8.8 Average Amount of Employment Land Lost to Other Uses for SMBC 100 8.9 Amount of Industrial/Commercial Land Developed Between 2003 to 2012-13 for 100 SMBC (sqm.) 8.10 Average Take Up During Strong Market Conditions for SMBC 101 EXECUTIVESUMMARY 8.11 Average Take Up During Weak Market Conditions for SMBC 101 10.1 High Quality Sites to be Retained 113 10.2 Sites of Strategic Importance to be retained 114 10.3 Well Located Sites Which Could Potentially Contribute Towards Future Supply 115 Figures Title Page 3.1 Size of Greater Manchester Borough Working Populations 16 3.2 Percentage of Households Deprived in 3 Dimensions 18 3.3 Stockport Committee and Ward Area Plan 19 6.1 Office Take Up in Stockport 44 6.2 Stockport Industrial Floorspace Take Up 2009-2014 46 7.1 Greater Manchester Districts by Employment Floorspace 48 7.2 Stockport Floorspace Ratio in the Context of North West and Greater Manchester 49 Average 7.3 Greater Manchester: District Office Floorspace Per Capita 49 7.4 Greater Manchester: District Industrial and Warehouse Floorspace Per Capita 50 7.5 Stockport % Vacancy Levels 50 7.6 Plan Identifying Poor Quality Sites Within the Town Centre 86 | STOCKPORT METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL Figures Title Page 8.1 GMFM Projected Floorspace Requirements for SMBC up to 2031 90 8.2 GMFM Projected Floorspace Requirements for SMBC up to 2031 taking Account 98 of the 15% Flexibility Figure 8.3 Amalgamated Office Employment Land Requirement Projections for SMBC 102 8.4 Amalgamated Industrial Employment Land Requirement Projections for SMBC 102 9.1 Industrial Employment Sites in Size 111 10.1 Assessment Criteria for Release of Employment Sites 118 3 Page EXECUTIVESUMMARY | STOCKPORT METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL 1.0 Executive Summary 1.1 This document has been prepared on behalf of Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council by CBRE Ltd. The document has been drafted by Harry Bolton (BSc., MRTPI, AIEMA) with the assistance and technical input from other suitably qualified persons within both CBRE Ltd. and Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. 1.2 This purpose of this document is to assess current and future demand for employment land and to consider whether existing supply and allocated sites are sufficient to meet projected demand and forecast requirements. 1.3 This study has been undertaken in line with relevant National Planning Policy and Guidance, provided with the National Planning Policy Framework and National Planning Policy Guidance. 1.4 As part of this study, Stockport Borough has been considered within the wider context of Greater Manchester. Information has been gathered in respect of the Borough’s physical as well as socio-economic characteristics and consideration has also been given to population demographics and infrastructure within the Borough. 1.5 Consultation with stakeholders and local land and property market research undertaken as part of this study indicates that Stockport has a number of key assets that assist in attracting and retaining businesses, namely these relate to transport infrastructure providing good links to Manchester, London and the strategic highways network and the highly-skilled nature of the local workforce. 4 1.6 Research and consultation also indicates that the Borough faces a number of issues in attracting and retaining Businesses. These include congestion, the quality of the Town Page Centre offer, and deficiency of certain types of accommodation that are currently in high demand. These include large floor plate, high specification new build office accommodation within Town Centre locations as well as large, new build warehouse development in highly prominent locations and with excellent highways connectivity. EXECUTIVESUMMARY Quantitative Assessment 1.7 A quantitative assessment of employment land within the Borough has been undertaken. This assessment identifies that the Borough currently provides 422,000 square metres (sqm.) of office space and 968,000 sqm. of industrial and warehousing space. The way employment uses are classified in planning terms are described in paragraph 7.25 and Table 7.1 of this document. 1.8 Vacancy levels with Stockport Borough have historically been higher than the North West and National average. Based upon a review of Stockport’s non-domestic rates database, the current level of vacant employment floorspace within Stockport is 19%. 1.9 Vacant office space is largely characterised by sub-prime, older and un-refurbished accommodation. Despite lower quality, smaller units with poor connectivity experiencing high levels of vacancy, large units that are well connected to the strategic highway network are currently experiencing very high levels of demand. 1.10 In addition, vacancy levels for new build warehousing and industrial accommodation are currently exceptionally low. Indeed, pressures upon high quality B2 / B8 accommodation have recently been sufficient to improve land values for industrial space in Stockport. This lack of floorspace has led to a return of speculative construction of new accommodation as evidenced by S:Parks Phase II. | STOCKPORT METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL 1.11 Combining overall vacancy information with market analysis provides a detailed illustration of the current variation in vacancy levels for the Borough. It is clear that whilst some types of accommodation / locations are currently surplus to requirements, there is a need for specific types of accommodation in certain areas. The failure to respond to this specific demand could result in local businesses seeking to move elsewhere within the region and an inability to attract inward investment. 1.12 The total employment land supply within the Borough is 52.17 hectares (ha.) of which 23.96 ha. of the overall employment land supply is currently made up of land available for office use and 28.21 ha. of the overall supply of land is available for industrial / warehouse uses. However, 9,453sqm. of floorspace has been lost to other uses during 2013/2014. 1.13 Over recent years losses of employment land within the Borough have been larger than completions. This has resulted in a net loss of employment land. Qualitative Assessment 1.14 As part of the research into the current employment land position, an assessment of employment sites within the Borough has been undertaken. The aim of this assessment is to gain an understanding of the overall standard of accommodation within the Borough and to assess individual sites in terms of their suitability for employment use. 1.15 A total of 67 Sites have been assessed. Completed proformas are provided at Appendix 5 III. 1.16 Sites are scored based upon 13 assessment criteria, which have been discussed and Page agreed during key working group sessions. 1.17 Sites are scored between 1 and 3 for each criteria (1 being the poorest score and 3 being the highest score). The total minimum score for each site appraisal would therefore be 13 EXECUTIVESUMMARY and the maximum score would be 39. 1.18 The sites are ranked in order of quality at Appendix IV this graph identifies that the amount of high-quality employment sites within the Borough is